Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 25921. Board of water assessors;  assessment of water rates;  appeals to full board;  hearing;  appeals to court;  information furnished city departments

The councils of said cities are hereby authorized and empowered to create a board of water assessors, consisting of three qualified citizens, to be appointed by the mayor, one of whom shall be designated by the mayor as the chairman of said board.  Councils shall provide a sufficient number of employes for conducting the affairs of this board, and shall fix the salaries of the members and employes thereof.  Councils shall annually levy and fix a schedule of water-rents, or rates, and the rents at which water will be furnished by meter, and the conditions upon which the same shall be furnished, and shall have the right to require the use of meters, upon such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by ordinance, either in specified classes of users or in certain sections of the city, or generally throughout the city;  and said board shall have the power and authority of assessing the water-rents, or rates, in accordance therewith;  and, for this purpose, said board and its employes shall have the right to enter and inspect all dwellings or buildings whenever they deem it necessary.

Said board of water assessors shall have the power to grant exonerations on account of vacancy, and non-use of water, and for other causes, upon such terms as may be prescribed by councils.  Any person, firm, or corporation which shall feel aggrieved by any assessment made by said board, may, personally or by his or its duly authorized agent, appeal to the full board of water assessors sitting as a board of revision, and demand a reassessment of the same.  All such appeals shall be by petition and affidavit, which shall be filed with the clerk of said board on or before the first day of February of each year.  On the consideration of such appeals, the said board shall have the power to examine under oath or affirmation, any and all witnesses who may be brought before them.  Any owner who is dissatisfied with the final decision of said board, upon said appeal, may appeal therefrom to the court of common pleas of said county wherein said property is situate;  and for that purpose may present to said court or file in the prothonotary's office, within thirty days after said final decision, a petition signed by such person, or his or its duly authorized agent therefor, setting forth the facts of the case;  notice of which appeal shall be given to the board of water assessors within fifteen days thereafter.  Thereupon the said court shall proceed at its earliest convenience to hear said appeal, and to make such order and decree touching the matter complained of as may seem just and equitable.  The costs of the appeal and hearing shall be paid by the losing party, or be apportioned between the parties, as the court may direct.

No appeals taken from such assessment shall prevent the collection of the water-rents, or rates, complained of, but in case the same shall be reduced, then the excess or overpayment shall be returned to the person who shall have paid the same.

It shall be the duty of the board of water assessors in said cities to furnish such departments of the city government such information at such time as the city council, by ordinance, may ordain.